Avalanche: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery (Sheriff Bo Tully Mysteries) by Patrick F. McManus Page B

way back to the lodge. I checked out both One and Two earlier looking for Mike, and there were no tracks leading into either one.”
    “It’s beautiful,” Tully said. “Makes me want to take up skiing.”
    “I prefer the Sno-Cat,” Grady said.
    “Well, sure,” Tully said.
    His phone rang. The woman said Ron Stolz was on his way.

20
    THE HELICOPTER LANDED IN THE clearing next to the lodge an hour after Tully got the call from the Air Guard station. They loaded Mike Wilson’s body on the chopper.
    “You ready, Lurch?” Tully asked.
    “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
    “Good.” He reached in a pocket and took out several folded sheets of paper. “When you get a chance, Lurch, run a check on these names for me. Find out everything you can about them.”
    “Anything else?”
    “Yeah, an ambulance will meet you at the airport and haul the body down to Susan’s lab. We should know the cause of death pretty quick. Eliot will pick you up and take you to the office, so you can get busy on your assignments.”
    “When am I supposed to sleep?”
    “When these murders are solved. Right now, get me the info on the list. And don’t tell me how. There’s no point in both of us going to prison.”
    “Right.”
    “You’re not going soft on me are you, Lurch?”
    The CSI unit shook his head.
    “Good.”
    The chopper lifted off in a blizzard of snow. Tully could see Lurch’s pale face peering down at him from a side window.
    Speaking of going soft, Tully thought, I’m exhausted. He tramped through the snow back up to the lodge and climbed the broad front steps using the handrail. Inside the entrance, he stepped into the room with the 3-D map of Blight County. He sat down on the bench against the wall. He didn’t bother to turn on the room lights, enjoying for a moment the darkness and solitude. The rowdy quartet of frat boys came in through the lodge door and headed toward the bar. Marcus Tripp, Lindsay’s former young friend, came trailing in a short while later. He seemed sad. Maybe he was still mourning his car.
    Tully leaned his head back against the wall and studied the peak of Mount Blight protruding above the top of the box. After a moment he got up, turned on the lights, and walked over to the map. All the cross-country ski trails were marked on it, as well as the hiking trails, the ski trails in dots of white, the hiking trails in dots of green. He studied the map for a long time, then walked into the restroom. He washed his hands and face and then his hands again. There are some things that never wash off.
    When he got to the dining room, most of the other guests were already at their white-clothed tables eating and drinking. It sounded as if some of them had been doing substantially more drinking than eating. He pulled out a chair and sat down with Dave and Pap.
    “I guess you got Lurch into the helicopter okay,” Pap said.
    “Yeah, kicking and screaming. It will be good to get him back to the department, where he can do some actual work. I pulled the boots off the body, bagged them up for Lurch so he can see if there’s a match between them and the impressions he made of the tracks in the snow.”
    “I can’t imagine there will be a match,” Dave said. “Wilson was as heavy as I am, maybe heavier. The tracks were made by somebody a lot lighter. I’ll bet on it.”
    The waitress came and took Bo’s order. He went with steak, mushrooms, baked potatoes, and pea salad. Dave and Pap were already eating the same. “I’ll take a single-malt Scotch, too,” Tully told the waitress.
    “Getting pretty fancy there,” Dave said.
    “Treating myself,” Tully said. “After today, I need a treat.”
    “I saw you having dinner with that other little treat,” Pap said.
    “Who? Lindsay? You stay away from her, Pap!”
    “I think that’s pretty stingy of you, wanting her all to yourself.”
    Dave smiled. “I’m staying out of this. Two old codgers fighting over a young girl.”
    “Hey, nobody’s